Submission Rules

General Guidelines

You want to upload some videos? We love that! After all, uploading short flicks to Metacafe is one of the five greatest things you can do in the world.

First, there are some rules to follow. We know, you hate rules, but they exist to keep Metacafe from devolving into chaos and becoming another business horror story. So here you go (take notes, we'll be testing you later):

• No cloning allowed. No, we're not talking about producing identical sheep in the lab - that's cool. We're talking about duplicating videos that already exist on the site. We HATE duplicates, because repetition repetition sucks sucks. So before you upload a video to Metacafe, please conduct a search to see if it already exists here.
• Eight is enough. No, we're not talking about that cheesy TV show from the Seventies. We're talking about the length of your video: keep it under 8 minutes. Anything longer than that should be entered into our Producer program.
• Keep your pants on. We're not prudes here, but we want Metacafe to serve as wide a community as possible. This means we will not allow sexually explicit videos on the site. Those are simply 2H4M (Too Hot For Metacafe).
  • What about partial nudity or implied sexuality? We're not afraid of the odd 'wardrobe malfunction' but it's better to practice safe sex and put an 18+ filter on it.
• Filter that violence. Please remember that Metacafe is all about entertainment and entertainment should not come at the expense of others. So if your video contains violence, please stick the appropriate filter on it:
  • 13+: For staged/acted violence (such as martial arts).
  • 18+: For real-world violence including physical attacks; for injuries, gruesome scenes, or explicit language.
  • Metacafe will reject videos which portray illegal acts of violence or videos that show or imply human fatalities however newsworthy such footage may seem in context.
• Dress for success. Package your videos with killer titles, descriptions, thumbnails, and tags to attract viewers. But, please, be accurate, or we'll tell all the people you deceived exactly where you sleep.
  • Irresistible Titles: What's in a name? Everything. Boring titles = no views, so give your video a title no one can resist.
  • Teaser Descriptions: Don't you hate it when someone tells you the surprise ending of a movie before you've seen it? ("Dude, did you hear that Darth Vader is Luke's dad?") So go ahead and describe the contents of your video in vivid detail, but don't give away the punch line.
  • Eye-Catching Thumbnails: Pick an image from your video that accurately represents its contents and grabs attention. But if it's something gross, don't show it - we like to eat while browsing the site.
  • Tag Away: Use as many tags as you want to describe your video. That helps people find it in a search.
• Pick a channel. If your video fits more than one channel, choose one that applies most. Still can't decide? Take a coin, assign one channel to heads, one channel to tails, then flip it. Later, see a counselor about how you let coins shape your life.
• No last names please! At Metacafe, we respect privacy, and that includes the privacy of the people in your Café Confidential story. Please do not use the last names of people in your story. In fact, while you're at it, why not make up the first name, too? We want truthful stories, but at no one else's expense.

• Originality Is Everything. If you see another producer's video at Metacafe and think you can do better, don't bother. As we said before, this is a clone-free site. And that includes Content Duplicates - videos with the same basic idea (such as how to use a particular feature in a particular computer program). Even if you create it in a different style, we don't allow duplicates. We're an entertainment site - surprise us with that wild imagination of yours.
• Our Lawyers Made Us Do This. We hate getting sued even more than we hate bad coffee. So don't include ANY copyrighted material in your video unless you own all the rights. That includes music, images, and video clips. If you own the rights to the music you're using, please e-mail us at producerrewards(at)metacafe(dot)com, and we'll make sure your video doesn't get the boot. (Sorry about that weird email address, but spambots are evil.)
• Three Words For You: Quality, Quality, Quality. Hey, it's the 21st century already, which means video technology is getting better, while screens are getting bigger (like that truck-sized plasma you're dreaming of) and smaller (like mobile phone small). So please make sure your video looks good, or we have no choice but to reject it. Low technical quality hurts our eyes, and our optometrist already makes enough money.

If you think your copyright has been infringed, clickhere to find out how to make a claim.